7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

The house beer of Mantis, a corner pub in Ghent in the Patershol quarter, located in a building which has housed many different cafés throughout the years – and which sits just around the corner from the infamous Velootje (which has ceased to exist as a café meanwhile). Brewed by the guy who runs the place in collaboration with his friend, professional brewer Mathias Vanoverschelde from ‘t Atelier. From tap at – quite obviously – Mantis. Thick and moussy, egg-white, stable, frothy head, misty orangey-tinged peach blonde robe with lots of visible sparkling. Aroma of orange zest, mandarin somewhere, ripe banana, soggy white bread, damp straw, pear, old biscuit, candied apricot, cooked turnip, red apple. Sweetish, estery onset, clear banana with notes of pear and peach, quite sharply stinging (over?)carbonation with minerally effects distracting from the fruitiness a bit; smooth white-bready, bit biscuity and cereally malts, honeyish residual sugariness but not too cloying, leading to a softly hop-bittered finish with both earthy and citrusy aspects, a combo of orange zest and dried field flowers, but too little of the first perhaps. Bittersweet finish – the residual sweetness and estery fruitiness enjoy almost unhindered access in spite of the hops, with that banana ester sweetness annoying me a bit in the very end. At a mere 6,5% ABV, this is hardly a tripel but rather an ordinary Belgian style blonde ale; and with hops soft enough to let pass all the sweetness as well, it is not nearly hoppy enough for me personally. Apart from those two points of criticism, though, it is by no means a badly executed beer, and as a ‘café beer’ needing to be accessible to non-geeks, I am sure it will perform well.